Mats Wilander believes Novak Djokovic made a wise choice by bringing Andy Murray into his team as his new coach. The former Swedish tennis player believes the choice was made both for tactical reasons and to send a message to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
“I think it’s a smart move. They’re the same age. Murray will be an excellent coach. He knows how hard you have to work. I think the message that Novak is sending is to Sinner and Alcaraz and the best players in the world. But I think it’s a much bigger message. I think it’s a message that says: Hey, next year for 15/20 weeks I think I can still play my best tennis. I’ll be ready for every opponent. Murray will try to help Novak not only in the big matches. He’ll be there every single day, every single practice,” explained Wilander to Eurosport.
The Serbian champion and the Scot, after facing each other 36 times, have decided to create an incredible collaboration. Murray gave his farewell to tennis at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, but immediately accepted the request perpetuated by Niole, to return to a world that he will never stop loving. The 24-time Slam champion proposed him to become his new coach and the Scotsman, without even thinking twice, chose to immerse himself in this challenge.
“My first reaction was: Djokovic wants to win at least one more Slam. Of course, all of us tennis fans would love to see him get to 25 and be remembered as the greatest of all time. Margaret Court is tied with him at 24, we all think Novak is the greatest of all time, but numbers matter. With Murray he thinks he can still win Slams in 2025 and maybe even 2026,” added Wilander.
The Swede believes that what Andy can do is tell Novak things that maybe Novak already knows. But Andy has played against all the players Novak will face, he has trained with them. He has spoken to Sinner, Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev. So Wilander believes that he will have no secrets, but he will have other opinions on the characteristics of these guys.
“I think there are a lot of small details that Andy knows that maybe Novak doesn’t think about. And I think they are similar,” he said.
